Chances are you’ve heard this advice before, but if not, here goes: if you’re not on LinkedIn, you should be on LinkedIn.
A 2014 survey found that 73% of businesses intend to increase their investment in recruiting through social networks, and 94% of recruiters used LinkedIn. Even if you’re not on LinkedIn, companies you apply to will be looking for you there. At Career Glider, we’re driven by helping people achieve career success, and LinkedIn is increasingly important to careers.
If you’re not familiar with LinkedIn, your profile can be thought of as a professional Facebook page, which shows your education, experience, and skills instead of your likes and photos. And on LinkedIn you make connections, which you can think of as professional friends.
A LinkedIn profile is a number of things:
- an online resume which showcases your qualifications;
- a filtering mechanism for job recruiters—if you’re not on LinkedIn, or if your profile isn’t up to scratch, recruiters may cross you off their list;
- a way of being headhunted by recruiters for job openings, even openings that haven’t been advertised.
Today, we’ll focus on how to address 1. and 2—how to do the essentials, and how to avoid the basic, disqualifying mistakes. A solid, basic profile will put you ahead of a lot of people.
Most importantly: no typos, and no formatting errors—they’re avoidable and they hurt you. And if lying on a resume is a very bad idea, on LinkedIn it’s a terrible idea—a whole network of your connections will know very well that you’re stretching the truth. With that in mind, here are some tips for sections of the profile you’re setting up.
Name
As well as your full name, you can add a maiden name or nickname here, if people are likely to search for you by that name. You can add suffixes, like “Jr.”, or add certifications, but putting anything else in the Name field is unacceptable to LinkedIn and will get you in trouble.
Photo
Your photo is important. Profiles with a photo are at least seven times more likely to be viewed than profiles without one. You’ll see that if you search LinkedIn, profiles without photos cluster near the bottom of the results. But it has to be the right photo.
Your photo should be a professional-looking headshot, of you, and only you. You should be dressed for your industry—if that means a suit, you should be wearing a suit. And while it might surprise you this advice is necessary, you should not be at a party, or drunk, in your LinkedIn profile photo. It’s worth considering having a photo professionally taken. This may all seem obvious, but you’ll be surprised how many people don’t do it!
Summary
Your summary should capture not just what you do, but who you are. It’s a way to introduce yourself to people, and should showcase not just what you do, but what you can do, by giving a sense of your accomplishments. Your summary can also link to other places that people can find you online.
People debate whether to use the word “I” on your resume, but on LinkedIn it’s usual to write in the first person and use the word “I” freely. You have up to 2,000 characters for your summary, and some people will advise you to use them every character no matter what, but no one wants to read filler. So do your readers a favor and don’t write just to fill space.
Experience (and Education)
Describe your experience and education similarly to how you would on your resume. One great thing about LinkedIn is you don’t have to leave experience off to save space. In fact, it can help to include all your experience, especially if you’re early in your career, to show you’ve kept busy. It’s still important to be concise.
Groups
Joining groups is important for two reasons. First, it shows a engagement with an institution or industry. Secondly, you can contact people in that group directly (otherwise, you can only reach out to connections or use LinkedIn’s paid InMail). So take some time to join a few relevant groups: industry groups, alumni associations, and so on.
Volunteering
One study found volunteers were 27% more likely to land a job than non-volunteers, so if you have volunteering experience, don’t skip this step.
Next week, we’ll look at your LinkedIn profile’s more advanced features and how to use them to make yourself stand out. In later posts, we’ll look at other features of LinkedIn, including skills, endorsements and recommendations, your network, and job searching on LinkedIn. In the meantime, good luck!
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1yC7uYK via small business marketing company
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/18M3kaA
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